Dirty Rotten Liar (9 page)

W
e rode back to the mansion with me sweating Uncle Suge's crazy dream and them damn DNA results all the way. I could tell he was kinda pressed out over how me and him was gonna be if my results really did come in positive, and I wished I could just tell him we wasn't related so he could stop worrying about that shit.

“Maybe you really are Sable.” He reached over and touched my hair as we sat outside the mansion in his truck. Bunni had already gone inside, and it was just me and him, the truth and the lie, sitting out there in the driveway.

“I don't really know,” I lied. “I mean, shit's been real shady since I first came down here, Suge. Y'all rich gangstas got the kinda pull to make a piece of paper say any damn thing you want it to say, right? So who's to say what the DNA results are gonna be? Who's to say that I'm Sable and Dy-Nasty's not? Or who's to say that she's Sable and I'm not?”

I was talking a real smoove game, but deep inside my heart I knew exactly what time it was. That damned Dy-Nasty really
was
Sable. I'd known the truth about her for a while now, and as much as I hated to admit it, that donkey-ass trick was also my
sister
. Why in the world Mama had decided to keep me with her and give Dy-Nasty away was an unsolved mystery, but that shit
had
to have happened because it was the only damn thing that made any sense.

“Listen up,” Suge growled as he leaned over and pressed his lips to my cheek. “I don't give a damn who you be, lil mama.” He rubbed his nose over my earlobe and whispered in a deep, husky voice, “I just don't want you to leave me no more, you feel me?”

I turned my head and looked into his dark eyes and then I swallowed real hard and nodded.

“I'm glad you don't want me to leave,” I said softly, and then thought,
'cause my black ass ain't got no place else to go!

 

Bunni's way of thinking could be way, way, outta the box, but this time my girl was on point and she had at least one damn thing right: If I was gonna walk away from this hustle with more than two nickels in my pocket, then I was gonna hafta forget all the bad shit Mama had done to me and get back on my game.

Climbing outta Uncle Suge's truck, I ignored the waves of pain that pulsated down my spine and shot up and down my legs. Taking a deep breath, I nodded what's up at the security dude named Durant and then I switched my gangsta booty through the front door of that mansion like I was a Dominion diva on the grind.

And wouldn't you know it, the first damn person I ran into was that horse-tail, weave-wackin', scandalous-lookin' slouch,
Dy-Nasty
!

That two-dollar Philly stripper had a nasty hood scent rollin' offa her that made my stomach turn sour, and the look in her hazel eyes told me she had sniffed the same damn scent on me.

We stood in the front parlor grilling each other like two alley cats with our tails up in the air. She put her grubby hands with the bit-back nails on her thick ghetto hips, and I put my slick gel manicured hands on minez. I twisted my lips up like she was foul and grimy, and she shot me the same damn look right back.

“Where's Mama Selah?” I demanded. The mansion seemed real quiet. Like the only energy in the whole house was rolling off of me and Dy-Nasty.

“She ain't here!”

“Stop playing.” I shot her a funky look. “Where is she?”

“In my bra, stupid ass! Where you think?”

“Oh, you funny as hell. Funny-lookin'!”

“Your ass is funny-lookin' too. And don't be eyeballin' me all stank, Mink,” Dy-Nasty giggled like she was up on something slick as she cut her amber cat-eyes at me. “ 'Cause when them DNA results get back ere'body up
in
here is gonna know who is really who!”

“Oh you damn right they gonna know!” I said, bluffing my ass off.

“Yep, 'cause minez is gonna be a match.”

“And minez is gonna be a match too!”

“Bitch,
please
!” we both said at the same time.

“You ain't even slick. I already know who yo ass is!” I said like I was a detective on a case.

“And I know who yo ass
ain't
!” she spit back.

“Yeah, whatever.”

“Yeah, whatever-whatever! That's why I'm the one Mama Selah took with her to Houston to visit my daddy today and you
wasn't
!”

“What damn
daddy
?” I smirked. “A trick like you wouldn't know your goddamn daddy if he reached down in his pants and smacked you in the forehead with his big fat—”

“Y'all two cut that shit out,” Uncle Suge growled as he walked up carrying me and Bunni's suitcases. He shook his head and shot us both a shitty look.

“How many times I gotta run this game down on y'all? Both of y'all is greedy and hardheaded as hell, but neither one of y'all is gonna get a dime around here unless y'all learn how to cooperate.”

“Cooperate,
hell
,” Dy-Nasty muttered under her breath as she rolled her eyes and folded her arms over her bulging titties. She hit me with a look that was so full of trickery that I felt bitch-smacked, and then she poked her lip out and whirled around and flounced her big booty off down the hall.

 

Uncle Suge carried my suitcase up to my room, and while I unpacked my few pieces of gear he ran me a hot bubble bath and called downstairs to have one of the servants fix me a cup of hot tea. He started making noise when I told him to get his butt outta the bathroom so I could get undressed in peace, but I didn't care. I knew it turned him on to watch me step outta my panties and slide underneath some hot bubbles, but with all those hundreds of black and blue bruises that Gutta had kicked up on my body I was like uh-uh, hell no!

Suge pulled his gold flask outta his pocket and spiked my tea for me nice and strong, and then I took it in the bathroom with me while I soaked in the warm bubbly water behind the locked door.

I laid back in the tub and closed my eyes, loving the way the hot liquor felt sliding down my throat and trying hard to let those rambling thoughts of Mama and all that other craziness that had gone down in New York drift right outta my mind.

After a few minutes Suge knocked on the door and said he needed to dip and go take care of some business, so I hollered good-bye and then kicked back again, sipping my yakked-up tea and soaking my aching ass. By the time the bubbles disappeared and the warm water started turning cold, both my body and my mind were feeling a little bit better and I was ready to concentrate on the gank at hand.

I got out the tub and dried off, and then rubbed some baby oil gently into my skin. I had picked out a booty-hugging, ankle-length cotton dress that I was planning to wear downstairs to dinner, but as soon as I put that baby on I knew it wasn't gonna do. The banging little number was slinky and sleeveless, and Gutta had kicked up mad bruises everywhere he could get a hold of me. My chest, my shoulders, my arms . . . damn near my whole body was bruised up from one end to the other and I was gonna hafta cover up real good.

What I really felt like putting on was a pair of old sweats and a raggedy T-shirt, but rich folks like the Dominions didn't roll like that at the dinner table, not even on their worse damn days. So I put my hair up in a ponytail and pulled on some tight jeans and a long-sleeved clingy shirt, and then I swung by Bunni's room and we headed downstairs to eat.

Selah hadn't shown up yet, but the rest of the crew was already sitting around the dining room table. Dane, Jock, Fallon, Dy-Nasty, and Barron. Pilar's uppity ass had shown up too, and she had a tart look on her face like she had smashed her damn finger in a car door.

Dy-Nasty was sitting beside me with her elbows propped on the table and talking real loud on her cell phone. She was wearing my ear out and steady running off at the mouth as she bragged to some hood chick on the other end about all the fly shopping she was finna do and how much she was gonna pay for so-and-so luxury items from so-and-so expensive-ass stores.

Bunni was sitting on my other side, and I wanted to crack up when she leaned over and whispered in my ear, “That hood bitch is so damn
ghetto
!”

I nodded and then went straight back to iggin' Dy-Nasty's ass because listening to her talk I could tell she didn't know shit about no real shopping for no quality items. Matter fact, her guttersnipe ass wouldn't know classy if somebody slapped it on her breakfast plate and poured syrup all over it, because almost every designer she was naming was second rate and their gear coulda been had for basement-bargain prices at some slum little outlet mall.

I squirmed my aching ass around in my chair and tried to get comfortable as the kitchen staff carried in steaming platters of fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and corn on the cob. We went ahead and fixed our plates even though Selah hadn't shown up yet, but the only ones who seemed happy as fuck to be at that table was Bunni and Dy-Nasty, and both of them was about to work my last nerve.

Bunni was chewing with her mouth open and busy gnawing a chicken bone down to the marrow, and Dy-Nasty, with her wide-hipped self, was spreading about two inches of butter around on a thick hunk of white bread.

I barely had an appetite, myself. All I could think about was the fact that my backbone was on fire and my heart was still missing Mama.

I was glad when Selah finally decided to show up. Her eyes were damn near dancing in her face as she walked over to the table and stood beside her chair and said, “Good evening, everyone. Sorry I'm late, but I have some good news and I wanted to share it with everybody at the same time.”

She was grinning all hard like she knew the best damn secret in the world and could barely hold herself together, so it was only natural that I started grinning too.

“Your father's doctors called today,” Selah said with big-time excitement in her voice. “They summoned me to Houston right away, and Dy-Nasty and I flew down there almost immediately.”

She glanced around the table, beaming like crazy at each and every one of us and then she finally spit it out.

“There's really no way to ease into something like this, so I'll just go ahead and tell you. Viceroy is awake! One of his experimental treatments worked and your father is
out of his coma
!”

Fallon busted out crying and Pilar looked pissed like a muthafucka.

“Hold up, Mama Selah!” Dy-Nasty wailed. “I'm the one who flew way down there witchu and you didn't even tell me Daddy was woke!”

“I'm sorry, Dy-Nasty.” Selah smiled at her. “I wanted to keep it a surprise until we were all together and I could tell everyone at the same time.”

I forgot all about the pain that was radiating through my body. I was so damned stunned by the news that all I could do was sit there frozen in my seat, speechless like fuck, but then Dy-Nasty started actin' up, and you can best believe when she jumped off into her grifter act I started cuttin' the hell up too!

“
Dadddeeee
!” she wailed, smushing her face down in her cold mashed potatoes as she keeled forward like her ass had been sniper-shot. “Ohmygawd!” she sniveled, and slobbered all in her plate. “Praise his name!” She slapped both her hands down hard on the table. “Praise!”
Slap!
“His!”
Slap!
“Ho!”
Slap!
“Lee!”
Slap!
“NAME!”

I tooted up my lips and shot her a killer look. No this trick
wasn't
tryna go to church on me! No this heathen
wasn't
! Well we could go to church, baby! We could damn sure go to church!

Bunni shot me a
go get 'em
look, but it wasn't even necessary 'cause I wasn't
about
to let that trick show me up with her back-alley praise words, so I went for broke and busted out with a few of minez too!

“I
knew
it!” I shrieked. I leaped to my feet like somebody had shoved a golden pole up my ass, knocking my chair clean over as I pogo-jumped up and down on two stiff legs.

“I
knew
my daddy was gonna wake up one day! Hallelujah!” I held my hands high in the air and shook 'em like I had two tambourines attached to my wrists.

“
Hosanna
!” I shrieked, and Bunni looked over at me like I had a snake comin' outta my mouth.

“Lawdhamercy! I prayed on my
knees
for this, Mama Selah! I swear to
God
, I got down on my knees and
prayed
for my father's healing and his salvation, Lawd, thank you,
Jezeesus
!”

I started trembling and gasping like I was catching the Holy Ghost, and I was performing so good that even Dy-Nasty had to pop her head up and kill all that weeping so she could see what the hell was going on.

But then Barron stood up and cleared his throat real loud. He walked over to me and put his hands on both of my shoulders, then he gave me a hard lil push like,
Sinner, sit your black ass
down!

“A'ight now,” Barron said, walking back to his place at the table. “We understand everybody is extra happy”—he shot a smirk at me and Dy-Nasty—“because me and Mama are happy too. Daddy has a long road of recovery ahead of him and it's probably gonna be a tough one. The first thing we gotta do is make some real quick phone calls and let his aunts and cousins know he's awake and that he's gonna be okay. After that, we'll all fly down to Houston tomorrow so everybody can welcome him back to the world and show him some Dominion love.”